Data processing systems, such as PCs, mobile tablets, smart phones, and the like, often comprise a multi-core design, typically in the form of a multi-core processor. The multiple cores may also be formed as part of a System-on-Chip (SoC).
High-frequency multi-core designs are faced with several technical issues that need to be over come. These include suffering from high power utilisation (and dissipation) when all cores are operating at full speed and issues arising from running both software optimised for multi-core environments and software non-optimised for multi-core environments.